For most rugby followers, the 1905 All Black tour of Britain has assumed legendary proportions. By its end, this unheralded team had taken the traditional rugby strongholds by storm, dazzled with its athleticism and innovative style, accumulated a string of huge victories, claimed a moral 'draw' with Wales, and put its young colony firmly on the world map. The tour created the 'All Blacks' name and mystique and enshrined expectations of international success that show little sign of receding. Its associated myths and symbols are etched in the collective consciousness of New Zealand rugby enthusiasts. THE CONTEST FOR RUGBY SUPREMACY provides a new and critical perspective on the events and personalities of the 1905 tour. It examines key themes in the formative years of New Zealand rugby that both shaped the success of the All Blacks and produced frequent controversy around them; explores significant political and sporting debates during the course of the tour; reassesses the achievements of the team within a British sporting world in which soccer was dominant and rugby union was severely weakened by the rise of rugby league in the north; sets the supposed controversy of the loss to Wales in a wider context; and finally considers the significant deterioration in British-Australasian rugby relations in the years immediately after the tour.

Since it’s first publication, Rugby’s Great Split has established itself as a classic in the field of sport history. Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources, this deeply researched and highly readable book traces the social, cultural and economic divisions that led, in 1895, to schism in the game of rugby and the creation of rugby league, the sport of England’s northern working class. Tony Collins’ analysis challenges many of the conventional assumptions about this key event in rugby history – about class conflict, amateurism in sport, the North-South divide, violence on the pitch, the development of mass spectator sport and the rise of football. This new edition is expanded to cover parallel events in Australia and New Zealand, and to address the key question of rugby league’s failure to establish itself in Wales. Rugby’s Great Split is a benchmark text in the history of rugby, and an absorbing case study of wider issues – issues of class, gender, regional and national identity, and the impact of the commercialization and recent professionalization of rugby league. This insightful text is for anyone interested in Britain’s social history or in the emergence of modern sport, it is vital reading.

A history of New Zealanders and the sports that we have made our own, from the Maori world to today's professional athletes.&‘. . . those two mighty products of the land, the Canterbury lamb and the All Blacks, have made New Zealand what she is in spite of politicians' claims to the contrary', wrote Dick Brittenden in 1954. &‘For many in New Zealand, prowess at sport replaces the social graces; in the pubs, during the furious session between 5pm and closing time an hour later, the friend of a relative of a horse trainer is a veritable patriarch. No matador in Madrid, no tenor in Turin could be sure of such flattering attention.' As Brittenden suggested, sport has played a central part in the social and cultural history of Aotearoa New Zealand throughout its history. This book tells the story of sport in New Zealand for the first time, from the Maori world to today's professional athletes. Through rugby and netball, bodybuilding and surf lifesaving, the book introduces readers to the history of the codes, the organisations and the players. It takes us into the stands and on to the sidelines to examine the meaning of sport to its participants, its followers, and to the communities to which they belonged. Why did rugby become much more important than soccer in New Zealand? What role have Maori played in our sporting life? Do we really &‘punch above our weight' in international sport? Does sport still define our national identity? Viewing New Zealand sport as activity and as imagination, Sport and the New Zealanders is a major history of a central strand of New Zealand life.

Why care about the past? Why teach, research and write history? In this volume, leading and emerging scholars, activists and those working in the public sector, archives and museums bring their expertise to provide timely direction and informed debate about the importance of history. Primarily concerned with Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand), the essays within traverse local, national and global knowledge to offer new approaches that consider the ability and potential for history to ‘make a difference’ in the early twenty-first century. Authors adopt a wide range of methodological approaches, including social, cultural, Māori, oral, race relations, religious, public, political, economic, visual and material history. The chapters engage with work in postcolonial and cultural studies. The volume is divided into three sections that address the themes of challenging power and privilege, the co-production of historical knowledge and public and material histories. Collectively, the potential for dialogue across previous sub-disciplinary and public, private and professional divides is pursued.

Examining the development of a sense of national identity in a British colony, this highly authoritative work is a valuable addition to the literature in New Zealand. By looking at the onset of home-grown shipping, railway, and telegraph networks as well as at the Maori and kiwi experiences, not to mention the emergence of rugby teams, this book accounts for how transplanted Britons, and others, turned themselves into New Zealanders—a distinct group of people with their own songs and sports, symbols and opinions, political traditions, and sense of self. Tracing markers in popular culture, political processes, and public events, this informative and thrilling history focuses on the forging of a distinctive new culture and society.

Independence and Foreign Policy is the first interpretive study of New Zealand foreign policy to cover the period 1935&–91. Based on years of detailed research, it draws extensively on relevant sources both inside and outside government. It is also an original and imaginative work which consistently takes a broad view, exploring the idea of independence in New Zealand's foreign policy, the kinds of independence most commonly pursued, and their implications in practice. The first half of the book focuses on World War II; the second provides illuminating insights into recent issues in New Zealand foreign policy such as the Vietnam War, relations with South Africa, and the anti-nuclear movement. Independence and Foreign Policy has become a standard reference in its field.

Since the first brew by Captain James Cook and the crew of the Resolution at Dusky Sound in April 1773, the story of beer has been deeply intertwined with the history of Aotearoa &– from the early settlers' prodigious consumption of golden ale to the six o' clock swill, from prohibition to the &‘ Black Budget' , from the domination of Lion and DB to the rise of craft beer.In this remarkable story of New Zealanders and beer, Greg Ryan tackles the big questions: Why did people drink and did they do so excessively by contemporary international standards? What did people drink and in what circumstances? How did tastes change over time? What role did brewers and publicans play in the community, other than as dispensers of alcohol?Richly illustrated, astute and entertaining, Continuous Ferment is both a fascinating analysis of New Zealand' s social history and a book for anyone with an enthusiasm for malt and hops, barrels and bottles, pilsners and porters.